


Darling don't be afraid

by Blue_Daisies_In_The_Shadows



Series: Thousand years and a thousand more [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Fury is so done, Good Loki, Homophobia, Hurt Loki, Hurt/Comfort, Loki Feels, Loki Gets a Hug, Loki Has Issues, Loki Needs a Hug, M/M, Mentioned Suicide Attempt, Multi, Odin is a dick, Odin's Bad Parenting, Poor Loki, Protective Thor, Soulmates, The Avengers are confused, Thor Is Not Stupid, Thor Is a Good Bro, Tony Being Tony, Tony is a reincarnated god, Triggers, mentioned attempted murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 16:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11740491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Daisies_In_The_Shadows/pseuds/Blue_Daisies_In_The_Shadows
Summary: Tony and Loki are finally back together again.PLEASE READ THE FIRST TWO FIRST!This won't make sense otherwise.





	Darling don't be afraid

**Author's Note:**

> So this will likely be the end of the series, I might add one more epilogue type story or a spin-off from another character's perspective, but this is it for now. No beta as usual, so let me know of any mistakes. Otherwise I hope you enjoy:)

Tony had no idea what was going on. He didn’t have a clue why he’d said those words or why he currently had a weeping Loki clinging to him like the god wanted the two of them to merge together.

“Um, Loki?” Tony asked uncertainly.

Loki just gripped him tighter, making Tony glad he was wearing armor or the bruises would be far worse.

“Why is your brother clinging to Stark?” Clint asked stiffly.

“You said his words.” Thor smiled.

“Yeah, and he said mine.” Tony replied. “The stupid paradox.”

“Wait, you’re Loki’s soulmate!?” Clint sputtered.

“Evidently.” Tony replied.

“Are you sure?” Natasha asked.

“I was there when his words reformed.” Thor nodded.

“Reformed?” Tony asked.

“Loki’s first soulmate…” Thor trailed off uncomfortably.

Suddenly Loki stiffened and looked up at Tony in panic. Then he shifted to stand in between Thor and Tony protectively. Before stumbling to his brother and only staying upright because he was clinging to the front of Thor’s armor.

“Don’t let him take Anthony from me again.” Loki begged him, tears still in his eyes.

Thor pulled his brother into a hug and whispered assurances that no one would touch Tony- that everything would be alright. Loki sniffled pathetically.

“What are you two talking about?” Tony snapped.

Loki pulled out a locket from around his neck slowly and offered it to Tony timidly.

Tony hesitantly took it and opened it at Thor’s nod. 

Inside was a picture of two smiling men. On was clearly Loki, he was wrapped around the other man and looking slightly down at him with obvious love in his eyes.

The other was just as clearly Tony, abet slightly younger. Tony’s look alike was grinning widely and had a possessive hold on Loki.

“What?” Tony said in confusion.

“It was a device you invented to catch light and keep it in a frame. A memory catcher. That’s the only memory we ever caught.” Loki replied.

“This is impossible.” Tony said.

“Tony, what is going on?” Steve asked as he looked into the locket.

His eyes widened when he saw the picture inside.

“How does Loki have a picture of you two?” Steve asked.

“He’s the same?” Thor asked in surprise.

Loki nodded.

“But how?” Thor asked.

“He’s Anthony, god of innovation.” Loki smiled.

“I’m what now?” Tony asked.

“Loki’s soulmate was a god.” Thor explained. “He met him many years ago, but father disapproved.”

“Of soulmates?” Steve asked in confusion. “I’ve never heard of that before.”

“Only a man and women are romantically accepted in Asgard.” Thor said bitterly. “Same-sex soulmates are expected to be platonic.”

“So he forbid them from being together?” Natasha reasoned.

Loki laughed bitterly at that.

Thor shook his head, evidently they’d be getting that story later.

“Okay.” Tony interrupted. “So, I’m a reincarnated god and Loki’s soulmate. I will figure that out in a moment. More importantly, Loki did just try to take over the planet.” 

“Thanos.” Loki immediately said. “I met him in the void. He wants the tesseract.”

“You met Thanos!” Thor exclaimed, horrified.

“You know this person?” Clint asked.

“Fortunately, we’ve never met.” Thor said as he started peeling off Loki’s armor.

“What exactly are you doing?” Steve asked, blushing slightly.

“Checking for wounds.” Thor said.

“Brother, don’t!” Loki tried, but Thor had already pulled off a good chunk of his armor.

Loki was covered in bruises, burns and cuts. Some were still bleeding and others looked like he’d tried to treat them and others still looked infected. There weren’t that many bandages, but the bandages that were there were dirty and bloody. Loki looked like he’d been drug across a battlefield a few times.

“I’m fine.” Loki snapped, struggling to put his armor back in place even though he was having trouble standing.

“Loki, what happened?” Thor whispered.

“Why would it matter, it never has before.” Loki snapped.

“Well, now it does.” Tony sighed. “Considering that you’re my soulmate.”

“I can’t tell you.” Loki said to Tony.

“You’re my soulmate, so you damn well better!” Tony exclaimed.

Loki looked at him in surprise before he smiled a bit. Loki opened his mouth, but before he could say anything he gave a slight cough and collapsed.

Thor just managed to catch his brother, immediately pulling him up.

“He needs medical care.” Thor said.

“Set him down.” Bruce said, evidently having turned back sometime earlier.

Thor carefully laid his brother down and Bruce set down next to him, gesturing for Thor to peel off the rest of the armor.

After a few moments of looking the god over, Bruce looked up.

“How fast do you two heal?” Bruce asked.

“Loki has always healed much faster than others, his magic has something to do with it.” Thor said. “I’ve seen him heal broken limbs in under an hour.”

“I thought as much.” Bruce nodded. “I’m not sure how, but his magic is taking care of all the major damage. It appears he has internal damage, but at the rate it’s healing I think anything we do would make it worse. At this point we need to carefully move him to a safe, clean place and possibly hook up an IV.”

“I have an emergency medical room downstairs.” Tony spoke up.

“We’ll move him there then.” Bruce nodded.

“Fury will want the whole story.” Natasha spoke up.

“I don’t think Loki can talk much at the moment.” Tony scowled.

“His brother can.” Natasha replied.

“I will speak for him.” Thor nodded.

“Make the call.” Tony said. “And let him know that Loki is under my protection.”

Natasha nodded, a slight smile on her lips.

-

An hour later the group was all gathered across from Loki’s makeshift hospital room. Bruce had assured Thor that they’d know immediately if anything happened.

Fury sat scowling at the head of the table, the assassins at his sides.

“Care to tell me what the hell is going on?” Fury growled.

“So, Loki is evidently my soulmate.” Tony threw out.

Fury looked at him a moment before pinching between his eyes.

“Only you Stark.” He sighed.

“My brother also named the one behind the attack.” Thor said.

“And you believe he’s not lying because…?” Fury frowned.

“He had blue eyes, just like Clint.” Natasha surprisingly threw out. 

“He has green eyes now.” Tony nodded.

“So Loki was another puppet.” Bruce nodded. “And this Thanos is the puppeteer?”

“Indeed.” Thor nodded.

“Who is this guy anyways?” Tony asked.

“Thanos is a powerful immortal that courts Death.” Thor said.

“Courts death?” Steve asked.

“The embodiment of Death herself.” Thor nodded. “He wishes to collect all of the infinity stones and bring ruin to all of creation.”

“Infinity stones?” Tony asked.

“Yes, the tesseract is one of them.” Thor said.

“Fantastic.” Clint sighed.

“But he can’t get through now that we closed the portal, right?” Steve asked.

“No, he would already be here if he could.” Thor said. “That is likely why he wanted my brother.”

“Couldn’t anyone have opened the portal?” Clint asked.

“Possibly, but Loki knows many paths through the realms.” Thor said. 

“And when he couldn’t get Loki to tell him...” Tony trailed off, feeling sick.

“Yes.” Thor said, looking away. “It appears so.”

“What did you mean about Tony being a god?” Clint asked.

Thor blinked.

“That is a rather long story.” Thor said.

“I’d like to hear it anyways.” Tony replied.

Thor nodded.

“Many years ago Loki was born with the words ‘I heard you actually have a brain, hopefully that means we can have an actual conversation,’ across his heart.” Thor began.

Tony frowned. Those weren’t his current words and he’d never heard of words changing.

“And Loki met his soulmate in the greatest armory in all of the realms.” Thor smiled. “Anthony was the finest smith, so skilled that he was known as the god of innovation.”

Everyone glanced at Tony with an utter lack of surprise in their expressions.

“They fell in love and all was well for a time.” Thor said. “At the time I was still… young, brash and selfish, but I loved my brother. When he quietly admitted that he preferred the company of men above women I was worried, but not bothered by it. On Asgard any soulmates found among the same gender are seen to be platonic, and while I did not believe it had to be so my father did.”

“He didn’t approve of Loki’s soulmate.” Natasha frowned.

“He didn’t know, not even I did at the very beginning.” Thor replied. “Loki went to great lengths to hide their relationship. I remember how nervous he was when he came to me. I promised that when I had the throne Loki would never have to hide again.”

“But he found out.” Tony said.

“Yes.” Thor replied. “I do not know exactly what happened, Loki has never been able to tell me, and as I was sent on an expedition I was not there at the time. When I returned home I felt that something was wrong. I was nearly too late.”

“What happened?” Steve asked.

“When I went into my brother’s room he was sitting upon the edge of his balcony. I was barley able to pull him back.” Thor said, tears welling in his eyes as he remembered it.

Tony froze as he realized that Loki had tried to kill himself.

“His hands were burned from spell work and he appeared to have spent the last days in despair. He managed to tell me that Odin had found out. His soul mark was unreadable.” Thor said. “I was the only one he would speak to for years. He spent even more time in his room.  
Centuries later something happened when we were on a hunt.”

“He got new words.” Tony said.

“Yes.” Thor said. “Loki collapsed and when I went to his aid new words had formed over his old scars.”

“My words.” Tony nodded.

“I do not know how you survived, but Loki was certain that you were his Anthony.” Thor said. “Words do not reform like that not ever, so I am one to believe him.”

“It explains mine.” Tony shrugged. “I always wondered how my soulmate’s first words included my name.”

“How could your father do that!?” Steve finally burst out.

“I cared not to ask.” Thor said. “We have not spoken for some time.”

“What do we do with him now?” Natasha asked.

Thor frowned, but Fury replied.

“Well, given he was a victim as well, we tell the truth as far as we can.” Fury said. 

“He’ll stay here.” Tony stated.

“That’s fine.” Fury sighed. “I doubt anyone is going to question why we have a large source of friendly information about the other realms here.”

Thor grinned broadly.

“And the tesseract?” Bruce asked.

“I should return it to Asgard, it will be better protected there.” Thor said.

Fury frowned, but allowed it.

Thor was to leave in the morning.

-

Tony lay on across his bed a few days later, thinking about what a mess his life had suddenly become.

Endless press conferences.

Moving the Avengers, people that were basically strangers, into his tower.

Odin’s reaction to everything.

Thor’s present.

The fact that he neglected to mention that the damn golden apple had been stolen. 

Thor moving in after that shitstorm.

Finding out what his choice to eat said apple actually lead to.

Aliens being a thing that everyone knew about now.

All that entitled.

Tony sighed, glancing down at the inky black locks thrown across his chest.

Loki shifted, murmuring something in his sleep.

Tony smiled and ran his fingers through those dark locks softly.

Yeah, he wouldn’t trade it away for anything.

It was more than worth it.


End file.
